Trump’s trade threats appear to be working — for now

Trump’s trade threats appear to be working — for now

When President Trump threatened to make life harder for the United States’ trading partners, many feared they’d respond in kind, putting up more barriers to American exports in what threatened to be an escalating trade war. So far, however, it appears the opposite is occurring.

The world’s largest economies have responded to Trump’s trade threats with less protectionism, not more, according to a new study by Global Trade Alert, which has monitored protectionism among countries in the Group of 20 since 2008.